1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a home trainer with biofeedback, in particular in the form of a stationary bicycle, a microprocessor and a device for collecting the performance of a person exercising as well as a sensor for detecting the physical condition in dependence on the time during the exercise and after the exercise being provided on the home trainer.
2. Background Art
The importance of physical fitness has gained considerable importance in the understanding of the general public of late. In this context, numerous home trainers have been developed for instance in the form of rowing devices, but in particular in the form of stationary bicycles, which do not only ensure the performance at home of physical exercise settable in time and in intensity, but which have also been fitted with additional equipment to collect important physical characteristics of the user and, correspondingly, to furnish important information on the physical condition and the training progress, so as to give the exercising person a feeling of achievement through noticeable and measurable training progress and, on the other hand, to allow optimal training build-up from aspects of sports medicine.
The pulse rate of the person exercising was in particular taken as a scale for the physical stress and the recovery rate after termination of the physical stress. Such an instrument has for instance been described in British patent 1,593,839. U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,752 specifies an apparatus for detecting the heart activity comprising a visual indicator and aiming in particular at the exercise of joggers in the open air.
DE 39 08 756 A1 describes a storage unit for controlling an ergometer, allowing the acquisition of data during exercise. DE 26 30 293 B2, too, describes a medical apparatus with a pulse recorder, which ensures an evaluation of the training performance in consideration of specific characteristics of the person exercising. A stationary bicycle comprising a pulse measuring device and data processing for optimizing the training program is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,427. Also DE 36 01 054 A1 and DE 41 07 323 A1 specify apparatuses that ensure proportioning the physical stress and orienting the exercise in consideration of the pulse activty.
The known apparatuses of a concept oriented on sports medicine proceed from the fact that the person exercising will take intense mental interest in the respective data indicated and the training methods, recognizing not only what has to be done for practice, but also having the strong will to do what is required.
In fact, practice has shown that a lot of people take up the exercise with these apparatuses with the intention to make use of the possibilities offered by these apparatuses, but that the exercise is very often discontinued because there is only little psychological stimulus in dealing with such an apparatus alone without any response or whatsoever challenging reaction.